Everyday
by steelcrash
Summary: After moving out West to stay with his cousin Sam, Spike Witwicky learns there is something strange going on, while trying to move past his own demons. 2007 movie universe.


Everyday

Part 1

Disclaimer: I don't own the Transformers. They officially belong to Hasbro and Takara. I'm taking them for a short spin.

Sam sat on the front porch, staring off into space. The cab with his uncle and cousin would be by any minute. On one hand, he was excited to see them both, but on the other, he wasn't. They'd "had a rough year," as his dad put it.

That was the understatement of the century.

-----

Spike looked up the sidewalk, seeing his cousin Sam stand and wave as the cab pulled to a stop. Sam's happy look turned to blankness when he saw the expression on the other boy's face. Spike stifled a grin. His father looked back over his shoulder at his son, who was in the back seat.

"Behave yourself," he said, noting the look his face. "Sam's just excited to see you, it's been so long. Can you please just try? If not for me, do it for your mother."

Spike frowned, biting back a retort. He exited the car, watching as his cousin came down the walk to greet them.

"Hey," Sam said.

Spike nodded to Sam, who held open the door. Sam's parents, Ron and Judy, were waiting inside.

Irving met his brother's eyes, glad the moment had passed as well as it had. It wasn't much, but it was a start.

Judy fussed over her brother-in-law and nephew. She was happy to see them both, even happier to give them someplace to stay until they could find a place of their own.

Mid-October, but still warm enough for a barbecue to welcome the two. She'd even convinced Ron to stay away from *his* grill, glancing over to the covered patio where the two men enjoyed catching up over beers. The boys however, were a concern. Robin, or Spike, she corrected herself, wasn't the same boy he'd once been. He sat on a bench at the edge of the yard, near the garage, with Mojo on his lap, while Sam sat between his uncle and father, listening to the latter's stories of his back-to-back deployments to Iraq.

Spike didn't notice his aunt's approach, startling when she placed a hand on his shoulder.

He relaxed, seeing who it was.

"Dinner's ready. Want to help me dish it up?" she said.

He nodded, putting down the now-excited Chihuahua, who smelled barbecue wafting on the breeze.

-----

Germany, then Fort Riley in Kansas. Manhattan was nice, the town was pretty, and his mom enjoyed being able to ride home together. The first tour was long, and they missed his dad, but they coped. After it was over, he was to have several months home of regular duty on base, but he was sent over for a second tour when another unit was short-handed. They accepted it, knowing that when he came home this time, it would be for good.

But it came sooner than anyone could have expected. He was filling in for another driver when the Humvee ahead of his hit an IED. Shrapnel killed his partner, and hit him in the knee. Eventually, he was sent to Germany, and later back to Walter Reed in the States. He was one of the lucky ones--he went from being unable to move the leg to having a slight limp.

With his military career over, and Michelle's contract in Kansas up, he let her make the decision over where they would go next. She chose Philadelphia, her hometown, also where her sister recommended her for a job. They moved to Yardley in the end of June and didn't look back. Between his military pension and her teaching salary, they had a comfortable living. Irving also didn't mind a reversal of roles--he stayed home and took care of the house while she became the breadwinner. But he also found work at a neighborhood garage that specialized in restoring vintage and muscle cars. It was only part-time, but it took him back to his first love--being a car mechanic. He even used the money to buy a 1965 GTO to restore with his son.

They'd started on the resto in October, not long after Robin's birthday. And things were good. Not perfect, but good. Like they'd always wanted. Not to say that things hadn't been good before, but there was a contentment that hadn't been there before. Irving regained the closeness he'd had with his son before the deployment, and despite his age, they were talking about maybe having another child. Robin had just turned 16, but he'd always wanted a younger sibling. He had an older half-brother, Buster, but he barely saw him. Michelle was still young enough at 36, and he wasn't exactly old at 46.

Then came the accident. Middle of January, just nine months before. She told him not to worry about Robin going to school because of the weather, but she had a few things to take care of, she'd be back before noon. But she never came back.

Robin stayed home for a week after the memorial service. They didn't talk hardly at all. The first month after she was gone, things seemed OK. Robin's grades dipped, but his teachers said that was to be expected. A few weeks later came the call he was cutting school. Then came the call he hadn't shown up at all. A week he was missing, later turning up at his aunt's house in Shreveport. Robin didn't talk about what happened that week. Rhea flew back with him to Pennsylvania, even stayed a few days before heading back to Louisiana and her two kids. It was then he made a deal with Robin--he didn't have to go back to school the rest of the year if he found something to do with himself.

"Something to do" turned out to be afternoons at the garage. After the deal was made, things calmed down. Robin helped around the house, and even started to take an interest again in learning, as long as it wasn't anything "formal." He had an interest in languages and history, so Irving bought him a couple of books on ancient Egypt and said if Robin would read both books and be able to prove it, he'd take him to the King Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute. Dinosaurs resulted in a visit to the Academy of Natural Sciences. He was grateful the boy would do that much--anything else reminded him of his mother. And his desperation to keep his son out of trouble drove him to the point of trying almost anything. Because in the back of his mind, everyday since the accident, he considered the fact that Robin could have been with her. And then he would have lost both of them.

---

By late spring, leaving Pennsylvania was all they both wanted. They packed up the house before it sold, trailered the GTO to Gia's house, where she said they could store the car until they decided on where they were going to settle. Rhea and her husband offered to take Robin for the summer after he landed a job on oil rig in the gulf. The stay at his aunt's didn't last too long, as Robin also earned himself a job on the rig.

At first, Irving didn't like the idea, but later relented when the boy made a promise--if he could spend the summer on the rig with his father, he'd re-start school in the fall, regardless of what it would take. August rolled around, and Robin, now called "Spike," a nickname he'd earned on the rig, re-enrolled in school. Labor Day weekend, a hurricane hit the gulf, sinking the rig, and injuring Irving in the process. Same leg, different injury. On crutches, after an expensive ligament reattachment, he didn't have a lot of options.

Ben couldn't (or wouldn't, as Judy so helpfully pointed out), Jack and Kirby weren't exactly in places in their lives where they could, but they and Rhea helped pay for the tickets to Nevada while he waited for the veteran's benefits to kick in while he healed.

Ron said they had the room and wouldn't accept "no." And a certain dealership suddenly had a huge need for a good mechanic after an accident the month before.


End file.
